MUSIC MILL

Corporate identity

Background

High fidelity (often shortened to hi-fi or hifi) is a term used by listeners, audiophiles and home audio enthusiasts to refer to high-quality reproduction of sound. This is in contrast to the lower quality sound produced by inexpensive audio equipment, or the inferior quality of sound reproduction that can be heard in recordings made until the late 1940s.
Ideally, high-fidelity equipment has inaudible noise and distortion, and a flat (neutral, uncoloured) frequency response within the human hearing range.

Brief

Music Mill was created as a quality-driven supplier to audiophiles in the east of Scotland. The brief from the client was to create a design system that moved away from the chrome and shiny clichés of the competition into a more sophisticated and nuanced style.

Response

The references to the natural world were an obvious step to take. We designed a marque that both reflected the cochlea of the inner ear but used a nautilus shell to visualise that part of the body. The link between the nautilus sheet and sound was also a great reference to the fact that you can hear the sea when you hold the shell up to your ear. The logic of the idea along with the beautiful imagery, thanks to Chris Lomas Photography, created a quietly confident and successful visual identity.